as in general he may wish to be free from all sin, so in particular may have effectual wishes to be free from his most beloved sin in several respects. he Object. But not to be free from sin as sin, or as against God. Answ. Yes; a man by common grace may know that sin as sin is evil, and therefore may have ineffectual wishes to be freed from it as such; but at the same time he hath stronger apprehensions of the pleasure, profit, or credit that it brings him, and this prevaileth. Indeed, men's carnal interest, which in sin they love, is not its opposition to God, nor the formal nature of sin. Doubtless all men that are ungodly, do not therefore love sin because it is sin, and against God; at least this is not so total in them, but that there may be a subdued mind to the contrary, and dislike of sin as against God. Many a common drunkard I have known, that when he hath heard or talked of sin as sin, and as against God, hath cried out against himself, and wept as if he abhorred it, and yet gone on in it, for the pleasure of the flesh. Object. But where, then, is man's natural enmity to God and holiness? Answ. 1. It is doubtful whether man naturally have an enmity to God and holiness considered simply, or only considered as being against man's carnal interest. 2. But were the former proved, yet common grace abateth that enmity, and gives men more than corrupted nature doth. Object. But the experience of the godly telleth them that it is another kind of light and love which they have after conversion than before. Answ. 1. It is not all converts that can judge by experience in this; because all have not had common grace in the highest, or any great observed measure before conversion. 2. It is hard for any to make that experiment, because we know not in our change just when common grace left, and special grace begun. 3. A physical, gradual difference may be as great as that which your experience tells you of. Have you experience of common light and love before conversion, and of another since which differeth from it more than the greatest flame from a spark, and more than the sunshine at noon from the twilight, when you cannot know a man; or more than the sight of the cured blind man, that saw clearly, from that by which he saw men like trees; or more than the pain of the strappado from the smallest prick of a pin? Object. But it is not common gifts that are worked up to be special grace. One species is not turned into another. Answ. He did, he came. O my Redeemer dear, O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. Yet if thou stayest still, why must I stay? This world of wo. Hence, all ye clouds, away; Away: I must get up and see. O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. What is this weary world? This meat and drink, Into a blackness and distaste? O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. With one small sigh thou gav'st me th' other day, I blasted all the joys about me; And scowling on them as they pin'd away; O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. Nothing but drought and dearth, but bush and brake, Some may dream merrily, but when they awake, Or take me up to thee. We talk of harvests; there are no such things, Or take me up to thee. O loose this frame; this knot of man untie, O show thyself to me, What have I left that I should stay and groan; The most of me to heaven is fled : My thoughts and joys are all pack'd up and gone, And for their old acquaintance plead. O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. Come, dearest Lord, pass not this holy season; And even my verse, when by the rhyme and reason O show thyself to me, Or take me up to thee. AN ADDITION ΤΟ THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE THIRD PART OF THE SAINT'S REST. IT hath seemed meet to Mr. K. to second Mr. Crandon, by an impetuous opposition of my poor labours; and having in his first volume against Mr. G. assaulted my Aphorisms; in the second, to fall upon my 'Method for Peace of Conscience,' and my book of Rest;' against the twelfth chapter (misprinted the eleventh) of the Third Part, he hath a copious digression, which I will now not characterise, either as to the intellectuals or morals, the judgment or honesty appearing in it; having reserved that to a second and plain admonition to himself. But because I intended these writings for ordinary capacities, I would have nothing remain in them which may be an occasion of their stumbling for the sake therefore of such readers as would neither err, nor be puzzled with contentious janglings about mere words, I shall give them this brief advertisement following. It is so far from my desire to teach men to build the peace of their consciences upon any nice philosophical controversies, much less on any errors or singular opinions of mine, that I desire nothing more than to lead them to, and leave them on, the plain, infallible word of God. My own judgment concerning that sincere, saving grace, which we may safely try our estates by, I have as plainly as I could laid down in that chapter, and my 'Directions for Peace;' and in sect. 39, to sect. 53, of my 'Reply to Mr. Blake :' from whence I must desire the reader to fetch it, and not from the interpretations of Mr. K., which so seldom hath the hap to be acquainted with the truth, and who professeth himself that he doth not understand me: whether it be long of me or himself I determine not. To these I shall now add only these few words. A The everlasting enjoyment of God in glory by perfected man, is the felicity which all should desire and seek. This is propounded to us by God in his word, and the necessary mean thereto prescribed; even Jesus Christ, and faith in him, and obedience to him, and to God in and by him. The distempered, sensual appetite, and depraved will of man, do incline to inferior sensual delights. God hath resolved that these shall not be their felicity, and that they shall never be happy in the enjoyment of him, except they take him for their chief good, and so far forsake inferior good which would draw the heart from him and except also they give up themselves to his Son Jesus Christ, and to his Spirit, to be recovered unto him. Though all men by nature desire to be happy; yet all do not desire God as their happiness. Nor do the regenerate themselves yet perfectly desire him, or perfectly forsake that inferior good; which was their supposed happiness before they were renewed. The understanding is commonly acknowledged to have three kinds of acts: 1. A simple apprehension of the mere entity of a thing, or of a simple term; 2. Judgment, or the conception of a complex term; 3. Discourse. The first alone moves not the will, because it concludes not of the goodness or evil of the thing apprehended. The second, judgment, is either about the end or the means: and either absolute or comparative. Several things are commonly called man's end, how properly I now inquire not. 1. Felicity in general; 2. Himself the subject, commonly called the finis cui; 3. The natural and moral perfection of his person; 4. The act of fruition, or perfect complacency in the blessed object upon a full vision; commonly called, our formal felicity: 5. The object itself, that is, the blessed God, commonly called our objective felicity, and our finis qui, or cujus, whether fitly, we shall better know hereafter. The two first nature hath tied us to; but not to the object, nor to the perfection of the soul in a spiritual suitableness thereto. The first absolute judgment produceth in the will a simple complacency or displacency; this is the first motion of the will. The comparative judgment, where it is necessary, produceth intention and election, or else refusal, and resolves the fluctuating will. Where there is but one good propounded, either one ob jective end, or one means of absolute necessity, or wherever there is omnimoda ratio boni, nothing but good apparent in the |